1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method which allows any one of a plurality of users to interactively edit, in real time, a given graphics and/or text/data file. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method which permit any or all of a plurality of users at remotely located personal computers to edit a file resident in one of the computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
For hundreds of years, authors have, had to rely on highly skilled craftsmen to convert their hand-written or type-written manuscripts and artistic renderings into typeset galleys and artwork suitable for reproduction by printing. Yet, most recently, centuries of skill and tradition have been overturned by a new development in the computer industry called desktop publishing.
Desktop publishing has become possible due to the ever increasing power of personal computers, new and affordable output devices such as laser printers, and more powerful software, including page description languages, such as Postscript. Desktop publishing can now allow an individual or business to quickly and inexpensively produce attractive and professional newsletters, brochures, reports, advertisements, etc., using a single personal computer workstation.
It follows that, since expensive typesetting and printing equipment is no longer necessary to produce professional looking printed products, an entire new industry has opened up for small graphics and publishing businesses to produce affordable, custom-tailored, professional-looking, printed products for a wide variety of individual and corporate clients. An example of one such industry where desktop publishing has opened significant new opportunities is the production of periodic publications, e.g. the newsletter industry.
Newsletters are periodical publications which contain news or information, usually of a timely nature, which is of interest to a specific group of people. Businesses often use newsletters for promotional purposes and/or to keep in touch with existing clients, or to motivate and/or inform their own employees.
Frequently, rather than produce a newsletter itself, a business will contract with a specialized outside newsletter publisher to write, edit, typeset copy, produce final art, and print the completed newsletter. In this case, the newsletter publisher will most likely provide a basic graphic format for the newsletter, and will also be in possession of particular articles which will be of interest to a variety of readers. For example, an article providing financial advice would be suitable for newsletters that several different banks might wish to provide to their clients. An article designed to motivate employees would be suitable for newsletters that many different companies may wish to provide to their own employees.
It is critical to note, however, that in almost all cases the graphics and editorial content each corporate customer""s newsletter must be custom tailored to that individual corporate customer. And while the actual production of the newsletter has been made more economical with the development of desktop publishing, a major new problem has emerged, which is how to perform effective editing of the newsletter in a timely fashion when the publisher and the customer are remotely located. Obviously, it is imperative that the customer be happy with the final product, and yet, the time required for the interactive editing process cannot be so lengthy as to cause the information contained in the newsletter to become stale.
The problem of timing and coordination of this editing process becomes exponentially acute when, as is often the case, more than two approval entities are involved at different locations. For example, at a client bank the newsletter publisher may need to coordinate and get input/approvals from three or more separate departments such as marketing, legal and branch administration. Or, another example is the client may be at one location, say Kansas City. The newsletter firm is in Denver and the client""s advertising agency, which is also involved in the project, is in San Francisco.
One method for the remote editing of a newsletter at one or more remote locations has been for the newsletter publisher to actually send a computer diskette having the newsletter stored thereon by mail to its customer. The customer then reviews the newsletter on its own personal computer and makes any desired changes. However, this method requires a relatively sophisticated customer, and can be time consuming, especially if more than two mailings of the diskette is necessary. Inevitably, information in the newsletter may become stale, and deadlines for periodical newslettersxe2x80x94particularly weekly and monthly newslettersxe2x80x94become difficult to meet.
A second method for the remote editing of a newsletter has been performed utilizing dedicated facsimile machines, and/or PCs which are capable of sending and receiving facsimiles through software, added hardware and modems. According to this method, the newsletter publisher sends a hard copy version of the newsletter to the customer via its facsimile machine. The customer then indicates any desired changes on the proposed newsletter, and sends a copy of the edited newsletter back to the newsletter publisher by facsimile. This editing method, too, can take several exchanges, given the uneven quality of transmission, misinterpretation of editing notes, and normal office delays in routing, actually reviewing, and forwarding documents, until the newsletter meets the customer""s approval.
A third method has been the use of telephone conversations with the customer, and via a conference call if more than two parties are involved. This by itself is the weakest of the three methods. As each person does not actually see the newsletter, misunderstandings are bound to occur, resulting in a dissatisfied customer. Using telephone conversations to augment the first two methods is an improvement, but each person may not have the latest version of the newsletter before them, and it is not a cure-all.
The inventor of the present invention believes the most desirable editing method is for all parties involved with both the customer and the publisher to be able to simultaneously view and interactively edit the graphics and/or text of the proposed newsletter as stored in the publisher""s personal computer on their respective personal computers. Heretofore, the technology has not been available for even considering such a system on the personal computer level.
To be sure, remote information transfer has been possible for some time, including smoke signals, semaphore and telegraphy. In the computer context, however, data transfer has been predominantly one-way, and point-to-point. Similar to a water pipe, when the spigot is opened at the receiving end, a first computer can pump data in a one-way flow to a second computer. Later on, the second computer can reverse the process, and send data back to the first computer. As can be seen, however, it is almost always a start/stop discontinuous process and also point-to-point involving usually only two computers.
Recently, software has been introduced that permits the user to view the operations of a second computer and, in some cases, to even control that second computer if necessary. Such software has been useful in remote trouble-shooting and software diagnostics. In this case, data is transferred point-to-point between the two computers by conventional data transfer means, such as over a standard telephone line using modems at each location. While it is conceivable that such software could permit the user of a second personal computer at a remote location to view work being performed on a file by the user of first personal computer, drawbacks to this method of potential newsletter editing are several.
First, the method would normally only work with two users. The software is not designed to support a plurality of users at separate remote locations. Second, data transfer speed is slow, effectively inhibiting transmission of bit mapped graphics and color images. Third is that only one user at a time may edit a file. Fourth is that such software is commonly acknowledged to be slow, and especially ill-behaved with inevitable data collisions and data contamination unless operated according to strict and tedious protocols. The significance of these drawbacks is further discussed below.
It is a well-established principal in cognitive psychology that, in order to maintain perception, changes in stimulation are necessary. Accordingly, after initially reading a screen of data, if the non-active user at the remote second personal computer stares at a static screen for an extended period of time, he will lose perception. When relatively large amounts of data or updates are sent at once to the second or a third personal computer, the context of the new data will very likely be unclear to the non-active user who has lost perception, and it can take some time before the non-active user regains perception and realizes the context of the new data or updates. Further, using the available software packages, the non-active user of the second personal computer can only observe changes that have been made by the active user of the first personal computer. The non-active user is not able to access the first personal computer to edit the file while the active user is in control. In this regard, studies have shown that man""s short-term memory is very fragile. In as few as nine seconds after a simple concept, such as a few words, has been presented, studies show that short-term memory becomes inaccurate in recalling the simple concept. After 30 seconds, short-term memory becomes very fragile. Even the slightest amount of interference after 30 seconds can destroy whatever thought is being held in short-term memory. Thus, any ideas the non-active user has for editing the file may easily be lost forever.
Low data transmission speeds also contribute to the limitations of the available software packages. Most modems in use with personal computers today operate at 300, 1200 or 2400 bits per second (bps) and are fully. compatible. Faster modems, which operate at 4800, 9600 and 19,200 bps, are also available. However, these modems are less common and much more expensive. Also, as the Consultative Committee on International Telegraph and Telephone (CCITT) has yet to establish standards for all these speeds, the faster modems of the same speed are not all compatible. Further, sophisticated error correction and full duplex transmission are not available in some faster modems, and in some of the modems in which error correction is available, four-wire leased telephone lines are required, rather than the standard and much less expensive two-wire dial-up telephone lines.
Due to the low transmission speed, the available software packages for transferring text and graphics have very limited graphics and color capabilities. Graphics and color are data intensive. Sending graphics and/or color data over a 2400 bps modem takes a relatively large amount of time. However, graphics and color are important in newsletters and the like. They are powerful tools for attracting attention, assigning priority, coding information, adding redundancy, etc. If the non-active user is not able to see the graphics being provided and/or the colors being used, the non-active user is constrained as to the type of interaction that can take place.
Dedicated local area networks are now becoming available. These provide faster transmission speeds. However, these require dedicated lines, serve limited areas, and generally do not provide the flexibility and cost-effectiveness required by small publishers and their customers.
From the above, a cost-effective system which allows one or more remote users to see the newsletter on their own personal computers as it is intended to be published, to see changes almost in real time as they are being made, and to contemporaneously and interactively make changes as they see fit is clearly needed for effective editing of newsletters and the like.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an interactive editing system for a plurality of remotely located personal computers which allows substantially simultaneous real time editing of a document being edited by any of the personal computers at virtually any time.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a desktop publishing system for remote personal computers which permits changes to a file being edited to be seen by all users nearly immediately.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a low cost system which permits users of a plurality of personal computers to be able to edit and/or view editing of a single file resident in one of the personal computers in real time.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a flexible system by which a single file may be simultaneously accessed by a plurality of remotely located personal computers.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive real time interactive editing system for personal computers which allows interaction between remote users without loss of perception or new ideas due to slow transmission speeds and/or lack of immediate access to a file.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a cost effective means for remote parties to effectively and quickly edit a document.
To achieve the foregoing objects and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, an interactive editing system for a plurality of users at respective remote locations for permitting any of the users to edit a file to be edited, comprises: a plurality of personal computers, one for each of the users, at least one of the personal computers using multi-tasking processing means, the personal computer using the multi-taking processing means coordinating editing by the users through their respective personal computers of the file to be edited; and interconnecting means for interconnecting the personal computers.
Preferably, the interactive editing system further comprises a plurality of voice communication means, one associated with each of the personal computers, for enabling voice communication between the users. The interconnecting means is preferably a non-dedicated digital communications system, and the personal computers communicate digitally over the non-dedicated digital communications system. The non-dedicated digital network can link both the personal computers and the voice communication means.
Alternatively, the interconnecting means may comprise a plurality of modems, one associated with each of the personal computers, and an analog communications link. In this case, each of the personal computers would preferably include data compression/decompression means so that data to be communicated between the personal computers is compressed before being sent over the analog communications link and decompressed when received from the analog communications link.
Additionally, the present invention provides for a system for substantially simultaneously editing a file by any of a plurality of users, comprising: a plurality of personal computers, one for each of the users, each of the personal computers including means for inputting and means for displaying; and interconnecting means for interconnecting the personal computers, wherein the personal computers include means for coordinating input to any of the input means so that the file can be substantially simultaneously edited from any of the personal computers.
Preferably, the coordinating means is linked to the input means and display means of each of the personal computers utilizing the interconnecting means, and the coordinating means sequentially polls the input from each of the input means, performs any requested operation on the file, and sends data indicative of the requested operation to all of the display means as the operation is carried out. The system may also comprise a plurality of voice communications means, one associated with each of the personal computers, for enabling voice communication between the users. The interconnecting means can be a non-dedicated digital communications system, so that the personal computers communicate digitally over the non-dedicated digital communications system. Similarly, when the interconnecting means is a non-dedicated digital network, the non-dedicated digital network can link both the personal computers and the voice communication means.
Alternatively, the interconnecting means may comprise means for converting digital signals to analog signals and analog signals to digital signals associated with each of the personal computers, and an analog communications link for connecting the converting means, wherein each of the personal computers includes data compression/decompression means so that data to be communicated between the personal computers is compressed before being sent over the analog communications link and decompressed when received from the analog communications link.
The personal computers can be grouped in a plurality of local area networks, and the interconnecting means may include network bridges and gateways for allowing communication between the personal computers on different ones of the local area networks.
Further, the coordinating means can lock out any of the users so that the input by a locked-out user will not be considered by the coordinating means.
The present invention also provides a method for substantially simultaneously editing a file from any of a plurality of personal computers situated at remote locations, at least one of which uses a multi-tasking operating system, comprising the steps of: interconnecting the personal computers over a communications link; and processing the file under control of the one of the personal computers using the multi-tasking operating system according to instructions input from any of the personal computers.
Preferably, prior to the interconnecting step, voice communications are established between users at each personal computer. Also, the personal computers can be interconnected and the telephone communications established over the same communications link.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be set forth in the description and drawings which follow, in which like reference numbers denote like parts, and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.